


Commendaces

by anonymous_moose



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: (by some definitions of happy), Found Family, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Sad with a Happy Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-07
Updated: 2018-02-07
Packaged: 2019-03-15 05:47:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13606839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anonymous_moose/pseuds/anonymous_moose
Summary: noun, archaic.Funeral orations; prayers for the dead.





	Commendaces

**Author's Note:**

> Posted this in response to a "lost words" prompt on tumblr, wanted to preserve it, did an edit and now here it is. I'm sorry that I'm not sorry.
> 
> Thanks very much to perfect beta orchidcactus for her help. <3

The old house felt colder, Taako thought as he walked down the hall towards the sunroom. Colder and emptier than it had a few days ago. The wooden floors creaked a little bit more, the walls seemed dingier, the paintings hanging on them less bright. All in his head, of course. But he couldn’t shake the feeling. Probably wouldn’t for a long time.

The heavy oaken door at the end of the hall was open just a crack. Taako pushed it in and stood on the threshold.

Lucretia sat in a rocking chair by the window, staring outside with her white-oak cane resting across her lap. Her shoulders were wrapped with a shawl, bright blue and white; she kept bundled up more, lately, even when it wasn’t cold. Her hair was longer than it had ever been, done up in a silver bun that made her look her age in a way she never had before.

She looked so frail. It made Taako uncomfortable, though he never let it show.

He walked up beside her, crossed his arms and leaned by the window.

“You have any idea what you did to me?” he asked.

Lucretia turned her head and regarded him impassively. For a long moment, they stared at each other.

“I had so much coin on you dying first.”

Lucretia didn’t smile, except around her eyes.

“I live to disappoint you, Taako.”

“Literally,” he said mildly, glancing out the window. “Least I know I’m gonna get it all back when Merle kicks it.”

Lucretia hummed. “The tontine. You still sending him those care packages?”

“With all the cheeses and stuff, yeah.” Taako shook his head. “Old man’s got a heart like a fist, though. Gotta step up my game, throw in some fatty sausages.”

Lucretia chuckled into a cough. Taako glanced at her, then back out the window.

“You okay?” he asked.

She sighed. “No, Taako, I’m not.”

He frowned a little and shifted uncomfortably, shoulder against the moulding around the window. “Least you knew it was comin’.”

“That doesn’t make it easier.”

“Yeah, well, some of us prefer knowing shit.”

She closed her eyes and said nothing. Taako bit his tongue. Too much.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

He took a moment before answering. “Not particularly."

"Mm."

"But I’ll get there,” he said, more to himself than to her.

Lucretia smiled thinly. “I’d say the same, but I don’t think it matters much one way or the other, considering.”

“That’s not what he’d say.”

Her smile faded. She opened her eyes. “Yes,” she said. “I suppose you’re right.”

Taako looked out the window again. It was sunny outside. A bright, beautiful spring day. Green grass on the lawn, a garden overgrown with all sorts of wildflowers and a couple fruit trees that were just starting to bud. Angus was walking the dogs around the yard. Even they seemed slower, quieter. Taako wondered how much they knew and how much they simply reflected the mood around them.

“He was too good for you, you know,” he said seriously. “You didn’t deserve him.”

He looked at Lucretia and found her staring right back at him.

“Neither did you,” she said.

A moment of silence. Then Taako smiled a little, and Lucretia smiled back.

“Yeah,” he said. “None of us did.”

“One person might have,” Lucretia said, turning back to the window.

Taako huffed. “To hear him tell it.”

“You ever wish you’d met her?”

He glanced at her, uncertain. “Sometimes. I guess.”

Silence.

“You met her, didn’t you.”

Lucretia closed her eyes again. “Only once.”

A little twinge in Taako’s gut. Small enough he could ignore it, these days. He thought about staying quiet, but he couldn’t help but ask.

“What was she like?”

More silence. When Lucretia spoke again, there was a thin, threadbare quality to her voice that Taako did not enjoy.

“I wish I could say I saw her like he did. But…” She made a noise between a sob and a laugh, and Taako nearly cringed. “I barely remember her.”

A tear rolled down her wrinkled cheek. Taako looked away. Angus was picking up the mail from the postbox near the road. The dogs followed obediently at his heels.

“You gonna stay here?” he asked.

In his periphery, Lucretia brushed a thumb across her eyes. She sniffed only once.

“Why, Taako,” she said dryly, “are you concerned about me?”

He scoffed and shifted his back against the wall. But he didn’t deny it.

Lucretia smiled, not looking at him. “I think I will,” she said. “Here seems as good a place as any to spend the rest of my life.”

Taako glanced around the room. At the furniture, at the paintings and drawings on the walls, the portraits and landscapes. There was Davenport, laying on the beach; next to that was Angus, carrying a dog, a big grin splitting his face; beside that, Taako and Kravitz, at their wedding; below that, Barry and Lup, renewing their vows.

And on one far wall, a set of three pictures – Lucretia and Magnus, sitting on a bench beneath an alien sky; Magnus, jacket on and shirt off, carrying Lucretia up on his shoulder like she weighed nothing at all; and a crude but careful drawing of Lucretia in profile, clearly drawn by a man with no artistic training to speak of. She looked happy.

Taako looked back at Lucretia. She was rocking gently in her chair, looking out the window of her room – a room made just for her, decades ago, as a permanent studio.

That was what Magnus did, after all. He made things for people.

“Don’t think I could stay,” Taako said. Then he shrugged. “But you’ve always been stronger than me, that way.”

“Gods above,” she said mildly. “A compliment. You really aren’t feeling well.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“Would you mind repeating it into the stone? I’d like to preserve it for posterity.”

“Fuck off, Creesh.”

She chuckled again. This time sounded more like her. That was enough.

Taako pushed away from the wall. “Should go pack up, I guess. Me ’n the bonehead’ll leave in the morning, get out of your hair.”

“You can stay as long as you want,” she said. “This is as much your house as mine.”

“Like I said, don’t think I could,” Taako replied. “But yeah. I know. Place was everyone’s house before it was his.”

Lucretia nodded. Taako hesitated, then stepped close, leaned down and rested his hand on hers. She took it and squeezed.

“We’re still not cool,” Taako said quietly.

Lucretia looked up and smiled at him. Her eyes were shining.

“I know,” she said.

Taako squeezed her hand, leaned forward and pecked her gently on the crown of her head. Then he straightened up and smiled.

“See you in hell, Lu.”

She patted his hand. “See you in hell, Taako.”

He gave her one last squeeze, then walked for the door.

“Oh, by the way,” he said, pausing on the threshold, “I’m making my nachos for dinner before I leave, so like. Deal with it.”

Lucretia groaned.

“I said deal with it.”

“You use too much cilantro. It tastes like toothpaste.”

“To a child’s palate,” he retorted. “Picked up from Magnus no doubt. Even beyond the grave, he torments me.”

“He would,” she said, and he could hear her smile.

“He would,” Taako agreed. “C’mon out when you’re ready.”

He walked away, back down the hall and towards the kitchen, and left the door wide open behind him.

**Author's Note:**

> Want to encourage more (or perhaps less) sad bullshit? Hit me up on tumblr @[mystery-moose!](http://mystery-moose.tumblr.com)


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